By Austin Henry

The curtains have closed. The students have left. The class of 2023 has joined the world.

On May 6, the class of 2023 got all bedazzled up and we danced the night away at our senior prom, and for many of us, I think this was the start of an end.

Prom being a milestone that many look forward to makes it also a sobering reminder of the less than a year left before college. Classes began to loosen up as final quizzes were given and I think I expected to be more emotional than I was.

I mean, it was the end of my high school career and so many years of hard work had led up to this, yet I felt very little stress towards the upcoming graduation and the start of college. I chalked it up to it just not hitting me yet because surely it would hit me when I get to my last week of high school.

Fast as the flash, May 6 turned into May 27, and yet I still felt the same. 

Going to school on the final day just felt like a normal day. It just felt like I was gonna be there tomorrow. So naturally, I figured that it would hit me the next day. Although when the next day arrived, no strong emotions came with it, it felt normal.

Once more I just chalked it up to thinking that I would feel it on graduation day.

As I sit here writing this, it is the day after my graduation and I think now it’s finally hit me.

I’m done. There’s nothing more to do for high school. No more essays or quizzes, no more late nights illuminated only by the lamp that sits atop my working desk.

I’m done. It’s weird. Not scary, not sad, just strange. I feel that now it’s on me more than ever. There’s less guidance and far fewer rules.  It’s interesting to think that nothing is stopping me from just leaving Norwood and disappearing into the world. 

Although even with this opportunity, there’s a love I have for this town that binds me to it and I am so happy to say it is my home.

It will be unusual not to see the same faces that I have seen every day for so many years, but not in a bad way. It’s no longer I am growing up, it’s now I have grown up and there’s a whole world at my fingertips that I know I will get to experience in full over the rest of my life.

I am excited, and truthfully a little nervous, to head out on my own but that is okay! I think everyone feels this way at this point in life.